Ryan Reynolds Discusses the Challenges of Making ‘Deadpool’
Deadpool was a massive — albeit somewhat manipulative — success. The film raked in approximately $760 million worldwide, was generally favored by critics, and was a huge hit with comic book fans. But while the supposedly “anti-superhero” movie was a fun enough diversion from the troubles of the day, it often played right into the generic stereotypes that it was openly criticizing. It wasn’t really that groundbreaking because it ended up just being an action-based comedy rather than some revelatory entry in the genre, which was the exact challenge the studio was trying so desperately to overcome. Nevertheless, the film’s many triumphs quickly convinced 20th Century Fox to green light Deadpool 2.
Star Ryan Reynolds (who also served as a producer) will obviously be reprising his role as the titular character. The big development, however, is that director Tim Miller will not be returning to direct the sequel. His withdrawal from the project was apparently due to creative differences concerning many facets of how Deadpool 2’s style would differ — or stay the same — from the first film. There’s surely an uncountable number of reasons why Miller chose to leave, but it’s still sad for a talented filmmaker like him to depart from a sequel that has the potential to be pretty cutting-edge.
It takes a lot of hard work to make something like Deadpool, so finding the right director will be a tough task. And Reynolds, who was literally front and center during the process, definitely felt some severe exhaustion while making Deadpool. In an interview with GQ, the actor reflected on all the tough decisions that had to be made, and how they impacted the relationships with his fellow collaborators.
“Making the movie was very, very difficult. It was the most passionate group of individuals I’ve ever worked with in my life. And for whatever reason, that mercurial crazy burgoo of people is what made this thing work so well, not just because I had this vision and I saw it this way, and it had to be this way. It worked because we all had that feeling. But there were vaguely scary fights in the post-production process that escalated quickly. Luckily, everybody’s grown up and at the end of the day enjoys and loves each other.”
“I know when I need to exert control, and I know when I need to let go of it. I’m not gonna go and sit with Tim Miller and say, ‘The visual effects of Deadpool need to be done this way.’ The man is a visual-effects wizard. But there are character and tone things that I know really well. And I’ve also been with this thing the longest out of anybody, aside from the guys that wrote the comics. Eleven years I’ve been trying to get this Sisyphus rock up the hill, and it kept rolling back on top of me. So I’m gonna be all the fuck over it from the moment it starts to the moment it finishes.”
When asked about Miller leaving the sequel, Reynolds gave a short but meaningful response by saying:
“All I can really add is that I’m sad to see him off the film. Tim’s brilliant, and nobody worked harder on Deadpool than he did.”
Largely because of Deadpool’s success, 20th Century Fox is ramping up their output of Marvel films for the coming years. Everything from the a potential revamping of the X-Men franchise to the troubled Gambit spinoff are currently in the works. So, it seems like we are in for yet another massive superhero movie universe. Don’t know if that’s a good, bad, just so-so, or horrifically bad idea. But, the studio’s most exciting upcoming film by far is the final Wolverine movie, Logan. If that’s a hit (like it’s shaping up to be), then something like Deadpool 2 will probably have a similar fate as well. Stay tuned because we will keep you updated as these projects develop.
Deadpool 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on January 12, 2018.